Karl Korte, an 82-year-old composer and long time resident of Washington County, has a new CD on the Centaur label titled "Guitar Music." Strictly speaking, that's an accurate description although there's no single piece on the disc scored only for guitar. That's just the instrument common to the three works, each written during the last decade.

The opening, "Evocations," is a kind of travelogue for a trio of guitar, violin and cello. The three movements draw on the musical practices of places Korte has visited and studied at during his career. In order, they are New Zealand, Japan and Turkey. These locales aren't obvious in listening, but there's an appealing and exotic blend throughout.

"Two Makams" are a pair of dances in asymmetrical meters, one fast, one slow. As with everything else in the collection, they're beautifully performed by Duo46, which consists of guitarist Matt Gould and violinist Beth Ilana Schneider, for whom all these pieces were composed. They have an unusual but rather inspired instrumental combination that can go from lyric and rhapsodic to percussive and earthy.

The final work, "Virtual Voices," begins with the instruments tuning. The open strings become the basis for an electro-acoustic exploration. It's a clever, if not wholly original idea. The increasingly blury and fragmented textures show Korte to be a techie, as well as a skilled composer with a keen ear for how to show live performers at their best.

That's Capital

The Capital Trio is an ensemble based since 2008 at the University at Albany, where founding members Duncan Cumming, a pianist, and Hilary Cumming, a violinist, are faculty members. Their first recording was just issued on Albany Records and features the music of William Matthews, a resident of Maine.

The disc's title work, "A Book of Hours," is a set of six character pieces that's as charming and tuneful as anything by Satie or Poulenc, if a bit more far-reaching and dissonant. The collection concludes with a duo that was written in 2000 as a gift for the Cummings' wedding. This is even more irresistible stuff, jumping back and forth from Stephen Foster quaintness to sultry tangos. The performances of both works are accurate and clear, and suggest that the players are as good-humored as the music.

On a Rolnick

Composer Neil Rolnick, a cornerstone of the arts department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, continues to be prolific on disc as well as in the concert halls. "Extended Family," his latest on the Innova label, features three pieces written in 2009. Although his career has been based in electronic media, Rolnick's latest music is often scored for traditional acoustic instruments and is also increasingly autobiographical.

In his liner notes, Rolnick explains that the title piece, a string quartet, shows his immersion in familial concerns, from the loss of his parents to his delight in being a grandfather. "Faith" features local composer Bob Gluck on piano in duet with Rolnick on laptop computer, and is inspired by Gluck's previous career as a rabbi. "Mono Prelude" is the first chapter in a planned evening-length work about Rolnick's sudden hearing loss. It's all classic Rolnick -- genial and optimistic by nature and oh-so-gently pushing the boundaries of music and technology.